APPELLATION d'ORIGINE CONTRÔLÉE
is the French system of designating, controlling and protecting the geography
and the quality of wines (as well as liquors and some food products, such
as cheeses). It is also known simply as APPELLATION CONTRÔLÉE
and often abbreviated as AOC or AC.

Near the end of the 19th Century, French
vineyards (as well as most all vineyards in Europe) suffered near devastation
from vine diseases and pests that were accidentally introduced from America.
These included Downy Mildew, Powdery Mildew, and Phylloxera. The European
wine industry was very near ruin before measures were found to deal with
these problems.

In the intervening years, the available
quantity of the fine wine was reduced to a trickle and demand for French
wine reached a historically high level. Fraud and adulteration were rampant
and widespread until the French government passed a series of laws in
the beginning of the 20th Century aimed at ending these deceptions.

The AOC laws specify and delimit the geography
from which a particular wine (or other product) may originate and methods
by which it may be made. The regulations are now administered by a powerful
quasi-governmental body, Institut National des Appellations d'Origine,
or INAO, founded in 1935. Every imaginable facet from producer to consumer
has been considered and most are either controlled or regulated. Use of
AC geographic terms on wine labels requires absolute compliance.

Terroir-ists
Victims of Statutory Grape!
Recently many French wine growers and producers, particularly due to market competition
from New World wine brands, have been protesting the strictness
of the AOC laws. For example, it seems that the average wine-drinking
consumer is perfectly willing to learn a few, or even dozens, of the grape variety names to
assist them when wine shopping, but totally unwilling to learn the thousands
of French appellations, especially when AOC rules prevent most producers
from displaying grape varieties on the labels of wines from their most famous appellations (exception: Alsace)...